| 20 January 2006 Sizzle There is an eternal sameness to the Marriot Hotel chain, which is a good thing, since my room otherwise features a commanding view of New Jersey State Route 10. As the volume of traffic rises and cars hurtle toward the Short Hills and the City beyond. I wonder idly if the bin Laden tape that hit the news yesterday means anything. Those that know claim it is really him, though not quite as vibrant as he has been in the past. Perhaps he is growing tired of hiding in caves, wondering if fire will come sizzling from the sky upon him, as it did on his associates in the tribal region of Pakistan last week. The last time he addressed us was before the first Iraqi elections, the latest of which was certified yesterday. He offers threats to the Homeland and a vague promise of a truce, if America abandons the Muslim homeland. He has previously defined that as stretching from Andalusian Spain to the Philippines, so I think he is speaking rhetorically. I hope so. I am traveling today, after all. But that is the question: Sizzle or steak? What is it? My bet is that he running a ragged. He could not disrupt the elections, after all, and his only real successes have been the murder of busy innocents. There is a small American woman who is held hostage in Iraq, and she may be murdered today, if her captors carry out their threat. She is apparently an indomitable spirit from Michigan, a free-lancer for the Christian Science Monitor. It is already late in the day where she is held. But that is the nature of asymmetric warfare. The voices I hear in the darkness are routed from the Middle East through the BBC, which is in turn broadcast by the miracle of internet packet switching by Wyoming Public Radio. As I listen, I read the words of Thomas Friedman, whose commentary was published in the New York Times this morning regarding the Detroit Auto Show. I remember the shows when they rolled out the new model years and Detroit ruled the highways. The displays were fantastic, and the fins were commanding and opening night had the aspect of the Hollywood premier. I don't think my parents went in black tie and gown, but there was an electricity about the show, and breakfast the next morning was filled with tales of wonder. Dad worked at little American Motors, and one year he announced that the campaign for the year was going to be “AMC: The Sensible Spectaculars.” I think I sighed, since the other kids whose fathers worked at GM and Ford were not going to be sensible. They were going to be flashy, and fast. Friedman said there was an exciting prototype car at the show, and it was spectacular in its own way. He said it was the Geely 7151 CK sedan, which seats a family of five and gets good mileage. He did not say what it looks like, which is a remarkable thing, considering the show used to feature sizzle and style as the main courses. But he did note that it will cost around $10,000 when it is available for sale in the 2008 model year, and it is built in China. Friedman says that we ought to look at this with the same alarm that we took when the Russians lofted Sputnik into low earth orbit. It should be a clarion call to action, a spur to national commitment to develop green technology. Of course it should. But our government is made up of men from the oil industry, and I get the sense that they enjoy the smell of what is sizzling on the grill. Maybe the President will take this on in his State of the Union address. What do you think? Copyright 2006 Vic Socotra www.vicsocotra.com |